Rachmaninoff gave the first performance today of his new version of the First Concerto. I love the first movement very much, it is naive and poetical, if a little long. Now everything has been skilfully smoothed out, but when Rachmaninoff decides to insert a touch of modernism in the shape of consecutive triads with parallel fifths, it jars unpleasantly on the ear; it's not at all stylish. Nor is the new final section very successful; after the dreamy subsidiary episodes its bluster is repellent. It used to be commonly agreed that the second and third movements are plain bad, but in the new version the second movement is very beautiful and it is only the finale, alas, that remains as bad as ever. The performance was a great success with the public.